Sunday, September 2, 2012

Musakhan Recipe- Middle Eastern Sumac Chicken

After picking my wild sumac and making it into a spice, I kind of was at a loss of what to do with it, other than making sumac lemonade. I mean, I knew my mom would make chicken with sumac when I was growing up, but that sumac was pretty boring. Just chicken, sumac, and onions, and I wanted something whose flavor was a little more full and robust and rounded out.
Enter google.
Via my searching, I came across a whole bunch of terrific recipes for musakhan, a middle eastern chicken and sumac dish, typically baked together with pitas and/or other flatbreads. See, that doesn't work for me because of gluten issues, so I just made up my own version that is completely gluten free. This recipe is pretty versatile. You can stick veggies into the chicken (like green beans, zucchini, and potatoes like I did in the picture above), or just leave it plain chicken with onions. Either way, it's so good you'll be wanting to mop up the extra sauce...
If you don't have any way to pick your own sumac, you can still make this chicken with bought sumac spice, which you can either pick up from a spice store, or even order from Amazon.


Musakhan Recipe- Middle Eastern Sumac Chicken

Ingredients
3 lbs chicken (thighs, drumsticks, wings, whatever)
5 tablespoons sumac
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 teaspoons salt
3-4 onions
1/4 cup oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
Assorted veggies (optional)

Instructions:
1. Chop the onions and garlic. Saute in oil until golden and aromatic.

2. Layer the chicken and the onions in a large pan or pot.

3. Mix the spices, and sprinkle all over the chicken and onions.


4. Add all the rest of the ingredients.

5. This chicken can either be baked in the oven or cooked on the stovetop on a low heat. Take your pick. I often do both, starting off on the stovetop, then switching it to my oven.

6. If baking, you may want to uncover partway through. Remove from oven when the chicken comes off the bone easily.

7. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes (or flatbread if you're not gluten free).

What is your favorite chicken recipe that you can just make over and over and over again? Ever eat musakhan? Does this seem like a recipe you'd try?

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5 comments:

  1. I tried your musakhan chicken recipe and wanted to tell you how delicious it turned out. I did use the spices/oil/lemon as a marinade, tho. My fussy dinner guests ate it up.

    I am now trying it on lamb.

    Thank you for posting this. I am going to use this as my go-to recipe for chicken.

    I will be checking out your other recipes. I think the Swedish Meatballs are next.

    Have a terrific day

    ReplyDelete
  2. do you cover the pan if doing it on top of the stove?

    ReplyDelete
  3. also how long on top of the stove? making it right now, so i hope you see these questions. thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Depending on the size of your chicken pieces/type, if on the stove top on low, I'd say somewhere between an hour and two.

      Delete
  4. I just want to let you know that we tried the recipe and really enjoyed it, it's a keeper in our home!

    ReplyDelete

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